Three major opposition parties in the parliament on Friday submitted an interpellation against the four-party alliance government led by Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) over its failure to take measures in recognising a Palestinian state.
Leaders of the Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP), Vihreä liitto (Finnish Green League) and Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance) filed the interpellation asking the government to explain the reasons behind not recognising the Palestine as a state.
The opposition leaders also held the government responsible for its failure to cooperate the President to handle the foreign policy of the country.
Tytti Tuppurainen and Johannes Koskinen of SDP, Sofia Virta of Vihreä liitto and Minja Koskela of Vasemmistoliitto submitted the interpellation to Head of the Plenary Session Unit of the Parliament Antti Linna.
The government will respond to the interpellation in a plenary session within 15 days.
After receiving the reply to the interpellation, the Parliament will hold a debate on the issue and proceed to a no-confidence motion against the government.
Leaders of the opposition parties have been criticizing the government for the last few months for its unwillingness to recognise a Palestinian state.
They also repeatedly warned of submitting a no-confidence motion against the government, if it does not recognise Palestine as a state in the UN General Assembly in September.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on several occasions that the four-party alliance government is not preparing to recognise the Palestine as a state at this moment.
President Alexander Stubb, however, expressed his readiness in July to recognise a Palestinian state, if the government were to propose it.
The Prime Minister reportedly also tried to pursue the President to delay publicly disclosing his support for recognising a Palestinian state.
According to a recent survey, majority of the lawmakers in Finnish parliament support recognition of Palestine as a state.
Different countries including France, UK, Canada and Australia already announced to recognise Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September.
As of March 2025, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 147 member countries of the United Nations out of the total 193 member states.
- Govt
- No-confidence
- Motion
- Palestine
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
